Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the February 5, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Selling on eBay
Whether the question is what to do with the growing
pile of discarded sports equipment in the garage, how to get the best
price for the 1983 Camry in the driveway, or how to start a business
from the spare room, eBay may be the answer.
Sometime after retiring from 40 years in business, and starting a
new career as a teacher and consultant to small businesses, Martin
Mosho discovered eBay. He now regularly sells on the online
auction,
as much for fun as for profit, and advises his students, some of whom
have been downsized and are sizing up new business opportunities,
that setting up a virtual store on eBay could be a smart alternative
to renting its bricks and mortar equivalent.
Mosho, who teaches marketing and other business courses at Mercer
County Community College and at Brookdale Community Collage, and who
teaches and offers one-on-one counseling through the Small Business
Development Center, speaks on “Buying and Selling on eBay”
on Monday, February 10, at 7:45 p.m. at the Princeton PC Users Group
at the Lawrence Public Library. Call 908-218-0778.
Mosho knows about sales, and has carried knowledge about essentials
such as integrity, reputation, optimum presentation of a product —
and, yes, savvy strategy — from his business career, Part I, into
his recent foray into online sales.
After starting out by selling ads in the New York Times, Mosho moved
on to advertising management positions at the New York Post, U.S.
News and World Report, and other publications. He also tried his hand
at operating a small business, a dry cleaning establishment in Red
Bank. “It made money,” he says, “but I didn’t like
it.”
Retirement wasn’t much to his liking either. “I found myself
cleaning
the house, and cooking,” he says, his voice betraying little
enthusiasm
for either pursuit. A post-retirement stint as a substitute teacher
was not fulfilling either, but in teaching adults he has found his
niche, and now is busy with classes in marketing and in the
fundamentals
of starting and running a small business.
In his spare time, Mosho is on eBay. There he finds a worldwide
audience
for the antique cameras and Japanese swords he collects, as well as
for the occasional purchase he has reconsidered. “I bought a
scooter,
really a small motorcycle,” he recounts. “It was very
expensive;
my wife never found out what I paid for it.” Deciding he was
perhaps
a tad beyond the age at which tooling around on the Italian-made
Scarabeo
was prudent, he listed it on eBay.
He was pleased with the results of the sale of the scooter on the
online auction, has had mixed results with his camera and sword sales,
and is re-thinking his plan to sell funeral urns online. All the
while,
he has traded tales of eBay sales with friends and neighbors. Here
is what he has learned about selling — and buying — on eBay:
Find items to sell. Your eBay business may be sittingon the shelves of your store. Mosho tells of an Ocean Grove storeowner who specializes in scented candles. By listing the candles oneBay he turned a small neighborhood business into an internationaloperation.Anyone thinking of starting a retail business could buy in bulk froma distributor, and rather than renting a store, could sell on eBay.As it has grown, the big online auction house has demanded a biggercommission, but it also offers big-volume sellers a number of perks,including participation in a health insurance plan. In Mosho’sopinion,opening shop in cyberspace offers considerable advantages over goingout and renting a storefront.If the objective is a little spending money rather than a livelihood,potential eBay sellers need look no farther than their attics,basements,and neighborhood garage sales. No item should be overlooked.”Peopleask me why anyone would buy a computer monitor on eBay, when shippingwill cost about $30, and when they could buy one on sale for $100at CompUSA,” says Mosho. The answer, he says, is that many peoplein this country live an hour or more from a store of any size. Otherpeople, he adds, have cars too small to hold a large monitor or havephysical limitations that make it difficult to wrestle a large itemin and out of a car.Know what your goods are worth. Do research before buyinganything online or offering anything for sale. Mosho speaks of aneBay seller who offered a Japanese bone sword for $1,000. He shotoff an E-mail to the seller telling him that his price was way outof line, probably by a factor of four or more. That sword never sold.There are any number of books on prices of collectibles, and foraysto antiques stores and flea markets offer clues. But one of the best— and easiest — ways of determining an object’s value is tolook up prices recently paid in eBay auctions. To do so, just typein the name of an object. By way of illustration, Mosho suggeststryingout “Kodak Pony,” a camera. A page appears that lists allof the Kodak Ponys currently for sale.”Look to the left of the page,” Mosho directs. “Clickon `completed sales.’” Doing so brings up a list of the pricesfor which all Kodak Pony cameras recently sold on the site, alongwith the number of people who placed a bid on each. The same listexists for every sub-set of the tens of thousand of items sold onthe site. It does not supply all the information needed to price anobject, because, among other things, it makes no mention of condition,but it does offer a useful ballpark range.Provide photographic illustration. It is not necessaryto illustrate eBay listings with photos, but Mosho stresses howimportantit is to do so. “People want to see what they’re buying,”he says. Just seeing the object, however, is not enough. Providingcrystal clear images, possibly from several angles, not only improvesthe chance that an item will fetch a good price, but also can beinvaluablein avoiding misunderstandings.In the case of a collectible, for example, it is important to provideclose-ups of any flaws, so that they buyer knows exactly what he isgetting, and will be far less apt to complain that the cracks in theplate or the nicks in the scythe go way beyond the “minorwear”mentioned in the listing. The same is true for large, expensive itemssuch as cars or boats.Invest in a digital camera for ease in uploading photos, and chooseone with at least two megapixels and an optical — not a digital— lens. A camera meeting these specifications produces an easilyuploadable image with enough clarity to give buyers a good look atthe object on which they are bidding.Set up a studio. “I shoot pictures on my kitchentable,”says Mosho, “but I bought a piece of white silk, so it doesn’tlook like my kitchen table.” A neutral background makes the objectstand out, and makes you look like a professional.Create a succinct listing. Mosho, with a deep marketingbackground, suggests that a listing not run more than one page. Writea clear, simple description of the object, include all informationon any defects, add a photo or two, and that’s it. He has seenlistingsthat go on for half a dozen pages or more, and says the voluminousinformation generally detracts from the appeal of the listing.Add a reserve price. If you want to get rid of the secondand third blenders you received as wedding gifts — just want themout of the house — then sell them to the highest bidder, period.But if you want to get at least $100 for the vintage camera youpurchasedfor $70 with resale in mind, put in a $100 reserve. Your bidders willnot see this price, but the object will not be sold until at leastthat amount has been offered.Consider all of your costs. Asked for a run-down of thetime it takes him to post an item on eBay, Mosho says it takes him10 to 15 minutes to shoot the photos, another 15 to 20 minutes toselect the best photos and to upload them, and about 15 to 20 minutesto write the listing copy. That’s close to an hour, and he has notanswered a single E-mail. Add the time necessary to pack up the itemafter it is sold, to drive to the post office, and to wait in line,and the time commitment is not insignificant. Factor it in to theprice at which each item is offered.Keep in touch with bidders. There is a section on eachlisting giving the seller’s E-mail information and inviting potentialbidders to ask questions. Answer any and all questions promptly.”Icheck my E-mail three times a day,” says Mosho.Time your auction’s closing carefully. The best time foran auction to close is on a Sunday at 6 p.m or 7 p.m. “That’swhen everybody’s home,” says Mosho. Keep in mind, he says, thatyour customers are all over the country, and even those on the EastCoast like to sleep in a bit on the weekends, so plan to have yourauction close not earlier than late-morning Pacific time.Consider using PayPal. A popular online payment system,now owned by eBay, PayPal charges a purchase to the credit card abuyer registers. The service takes a few percentage points of thesale price, reducing the seller’s profit, but Mosho says the fee ismoney well spent. “You want anything that makes it easier forpeople to buy,” he says, “just like in a store.” Sellerscan stipulate the forms of payment they accept. When he startedsellingon eBay, Mosho took only cash or money orders, but soon signed onto PayPal.Set shipping terms. When Mosho sold his scooter, hestipulatedthat under no circumstances would he ship it. The buyer had to pickit up. “That took away 90 percent of my market,” heacknowledges.But he did not want the work, responsibility, or uncertainlyassociatedwith packing up and shipping a large, heavy object. It turned outthat he drew a respectable number of local bidders willing to pickthe scooter up, and he is happy with the price he received.For smaller items, Mosho charges buyers only what it actually costshim for shipping. Other vendors, he notes, make money on shipping,charging a flat fee of $5, when postage and packaging might come onlyto $1 or so. He does not like this practice, but says it is notillegalor unethical.Be aware of snipers. Mosho aims to place bids for itemshe wants about 60 seconds before an auction closes. The idea is toslide in at the last moment so that no one else has time to top youroffer. “Some people bid in the last 10 seconds,” he says.It is tricky to cut it so close, but some savvy buyers do pull itoff. “They’re called snipers,” says Mosho.Keep your reputation clean. Mosho emphasizes theimportanceof a flawless reputation again and again. eBay buyers leave feedbackon the people from whom they buy, and sellers often scrutinize thesecomments. Fail to ship an item in a timely manner or sell somethingthat is not in the condition promised, and there is a good chancethat no one else will buy from you.Beware of eBay’s limitations. It’s easy to learn how tolist, sell, and buy on eBay. The site walks users through theprocedure,and those looking for advanced tips can find them aplenty in bookssuch as Starting an eBay Business for Dummies, The Official eBayBible,Strike it Rich on eBay, The Perfect Store: Inside eBay, and CliffNotes: Buying and Selling on eBay. Amazon.com lists 38 eBay titles,and a number of the books are available at bookstores.While there is plenty of help in setting up shop on eBay, Mosho findsthat the company itself provides extremely poor customer service.Before leaving for a trip last month, he ran into trouble whileattemptingto post a photo on one of his listings. He says he spent more thanan hour attempting to get a live eBay human on the phone before givingup. “There’s just no way to contact them,” he says.Still, overall, Mosho finds eBay to be an efficient market,matching sellers all over the world with those eager to buy exactlywhat they are selling. He warns novices, though, that results of anyone sale are subject to forces that can only be described ascapricious.Sometimes an item draws multiple bids right away, while its twinlanguisheswith nary a nibble. Says Mosho philosophically: “Who knowswhy?”Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
